Posts in Category: Lawyers

A litigation attorney is a type of lawyer who works with their client through all phases of the civil law and litigation process, from the investigation and pleadings through the entire trial, settlement, and appeal. There may be long hours of desk work and research leading up to the trial, followed by intense civil case arguments, and through all of it, the litigator must work closely with their own client and have a thorough understanding of what is at stake.

That they follow the process from end to end distinguishes them from a trial lawyer, although often times they take on that role as the occasion demands. Their standard educational background is law school, followed by the bar exam.

Litigator Karl Heideck specializes in Risk Management and Compliance Practices in the greater Philadelphia area from his office in Jenkintown. He has ten years of experience practicing law and is a lawyer in good standing with the Pennsylvania Bar Association. Karl Heideck has come to specialize in areas of the commercial law world, taking cases in varied avenues such as product liabilities, commercial litigation, and employment law. Furthermore, he also has developed skill sets for legal writing and research, which are key aspects of a successful litigation attorney. He currently works for Pepper Hamilton LLP.

Karl Heideck’s educational background bears out his current credentials. He studied English and Literature at Swarthmore College, then he was accepted into the Tempe University Beasley School of Law, where he would later graduate with honors. Like all litigation attorneys, he passed the bar exam of his state in order to practice law, and it is not uncommon for litigators such as Karl Heideck to do very well in law school itself, as research and legal theory are critical parts of their careers after they graduate.

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 is one of the significant financial regulations enacted since the 2008 financial crisis. The Act comprised of many reforms including a new whistleblower program aimed at providing financial incentives as well as employment protection for people to report any violation of the federal securities regulations. The body authorized to receive the violation reports is the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The SEC Whistleblowers program requires that the Securities and Exchange Commission pays eligible whistleblowers between 10 percent and 30 percent of the monetary value of sanctions collected after a successful enforcement action whereby the penalties are at least $1 million. Furthermore, whistleblowers may be rewarded with more awards if the $1 million threshold is met. However, this will depend on the collected monetary sanctions with respect to related actions forwarded by other law enforcement and regulatory organizations. According to the Dodd-Frank Act, it is illegal for an employer to retaliate against a whistleblower who reports to the SEC.

In June 2016, SEC awarded a monetary award of more than $17million, the second largest ever since the SEC Whistleblower program started six years ago, to a whistleblower represented by Labaton Sucharow LLP. Jordan A. Thomas, a SEC whistleblower lawyer, led his team in securing the monetary awards for his client who exposed significant wrongdoing in a high profile case in the financial services sector. The Securities and Exchange Commission prevents the identification of a whistleblower’s identity by withholding the specific cases that whistleblowers significantly contributed.

The role of a SEC whistleblower advocate is to represent clients and work with the SEC to successfully charge an employer if he or she retaliates against a whistleblower. For instance, Mr. Thomas, in another case, represented an officer from a public company to be given a whistleblower award.

Mr. Thomas also serves as the Chairman of the Whistleblower Representation Practice at Labaton Sucharow LLP, a law firm in the United States that focuses on advocating and protecting SEC whistleblowers. The firm was the first in the United States to establish practice specifically dedicated to representing SEC whistleblowers. It is one of the leading law firms in the country that comprehensively represent investors, business organizations, and individual consumers in complex business and securities litigation. http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/second-largest-sec-whistleblower-award-granted-to-labaton-sucharow-client-300282555.html

The U.S Congress is committed to ensuring that there are sufficient funds to pay for the SEC awards and has established an Investor Protection Fund.